Case Study: Efficiency from loading to reporting at TanQuid
03/23/2012 Case Study: Efficiency from loading to reporting at TanQuidOptimization of the automatic operation of tank terminals / Centralized control system using OpenTASMergers are a challenge for any company. If the newly formed company is to act as a coordinated entity, it must integrate all of its processes, systems and databases as quickly as possible. TanQuid GmbH & Co. KG, currently Germany's biggest independent tank terminal operator, was faced with this particular challenge in 2008. At that time, TanQuid was a business created from three newly merged companies with completely different system structures. It was clear what had to be done. The new company urgently needed a standard terminal management system that could draw upon the same data at all of its sites to enable centralized terminal control. A challenging project had begun. TanQuid selected the OpenTAS terminal management and automation system from Implico, a consulting and software company with many years of expertise in this field.
TanQuid was spun off from the VTG-Lehnkering Group as an independent tank storage company. It subsequently expanded with the acquisition of the Petroplus and IVG tank terminals sites. The company now owns 14 tank terminals with storage capacities of between 24,500m³ and 878,000m³. It operates two further tank terminals on behalf of other companies, and on January 1, 2012, the Transtank joint venture with BP Europa SE was added to the portfolio. Because OpenTAS had been used successfully for many years at the five sites of the former VTG-Tanklager (one of Implico's first customers), it did not take long for TanQuid senior management to decide that OpenTAS was the right solution for their new company too. The way forward was now clear: In the future all of the company’s sites would use the same latest release of OpenTAS.
Summary
Together, Implico and TanQuid have achieved their goal and turned three companies with different systems into a single group with a coherent terminal management and automation system. The successful changeover has brought two key benefits: The data at the different storage terminals is comparable and can be managed centrally, and each individual site has gained from having the fully automated OpenTAS solution. One of the key reasons for this success was the way the team members from two different companies were able to build a capable project team. Project and IT Manager Thomas Knutzen from TanQuid summed up his three years working on the project: "I must admit that we were surprised by the complexity of the project at first. But we grew into a great team, learning something new each time we tackled a different site. The final migrations went like clockwork and I look forward to working with Implico again in the future."
Photo: © TanQuid
Photo: © TanQuid
